Nuclear energy ... internalise[s] all waste disposal and decommissioning costs. ...
For nuclear power plants any cost figures normally include spent fuel management, plant decommissioning and final waste disposal. These costs, while usually external for other technologies, are internal for nuclear power (ie they have to be paid or set aside securely by the utility generating the power, and the cost passed on to the customer in the actual tariff).
Decommissioning costs are about 9-15% of the initial capital cost of a nuclear power plant. But when discounted, they contribute only a few percent to the investment cost and even less to the generation cost. In the USA they account for 0.1-0.2 cent/kWh, which is no more than 5% of the cost of the electricity produced.
The back-end of the fuel cycle, including used fuel storage or disposal in a waste repository, contributes up to another 10% to the overall costs per kWh, - less if there is direct disposal of used fuel rather than reprocessing. The $26 billion US used fuel program is funded by a 0.1 cent/kWh levy.
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Decommissioning costs can be reduced even further by extending the operating lifetimes of reactors (now planned to be 60 years (70 years in Japan), but potentially soon planned to be 80 or 100 years), and by deferring decommissiong activities by mothballing them (placing them in SafStor mode http://www.google.com/search?q=safstor) for what is currently planned to be 100 years. Deferring decommissioning activities saves money because the cost of future capital tends to be less than the cost of present capital (i.e. future costs are discounted), and because radionuclides decay over time which makes decommissioning easier.
Comments
[nuclear] decommissioning is hideously expensive.
How expensive is it?
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf02.html
Nuclear energy ... internalise[s] all waste disposal and decommissioning costs. ...
For nuclear power plants any cost figures normally include spent fuel management, plant decommissioning and final waste disposal. These costs, while usually external for other technologies, are internal for nuclear power (ie they have to be paid or set aside securely by the utility generating the power, and the cost passed on to the customer in the actual tariff).
Decommissioning costs are about 9-15% of the initial capital cost of a nuclear power plant. But when discounted, they contribute only a few percent to the investment cost and even less to the generation cost. In the USA they account for 0.1-0.2 cent/kWh, which is no more than 5% of the cost of the electricity produced.
The back-end of the fuel cycle, including used fuel storage or disposal in a waste repository, contributes up to another 10% to the overall costs per kWh, - less if there is direct disposal of used fuel rather than reprocessing. The $26 billion US used fuel program is funded by a 0.1 cent/kWh levy.
Decommissioning costs can be reduced even further by extending the operating lifetimes of reactors (now planned to be 60 years (70 years in Japan), but potentially soon planned to be 80 or 100 years), and by deferring decommissiong activities by mothballing them (placing them in SafStor mode http://www.google.com/search?q=safstor) for what is currently planned to be 100 years. Deferring decommissioning activities saves money because the cost of future capital tends to be less than the cost of present capital (i.e. future costs are discounted), and because radionuclides decay over time which makes decommissioning easier.